Margaret, Countess of Vertus
Margaret, Countess of Vertus, was a French vassal, ruling Countess of Vertus and Etampes 1420–1466. She was the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti.
Life
Margaret was the daughter of Louis I, Duke of Orléans, and Valentina Visconti. Her mother was the daughter of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, and Isabella of France. Her brother was Charles, Duke of Orléans, captured at Agincourt and imprisoned for twenty-five years in England and who during his long captivity, became the greatest poet of the 15th century in the French language.In 1423 she married Richard of Montfort, son of John IV, Duke of Brittany, and Joanna of Navarre. Margaret succeeded her brother Philip as Countess of Vertus. Margaret, widowed in 1438, lived for a long time at Longchamp and in other monasteries with her younger daughters, Margaret and Madeleine. She was described as a very pious woman.
The Book of Hours of Marguerite d'Orleans, regarded as a defining example of the Illustrated Prayer Book of the Fifteenth Century, was made for her so that she might practice her devotion on a daily basis.
She obtained a declaration from the Cardinal of Estouteville that sheltered her liberty and that of her daughters as they moved among the convents and religious monasteries of northern France. She finally retired to the Abbey at Guiche, order of Sainte Claire near Blois, where she died 24 April 1466 at the age of sixty.
County of Étampes
With her father's death, Margaret inherited the rights to the County of Étampes, and was named countess with her husband as count, in 1423, which was recovered from the crown lands after the death in 1416, of its last incumbent lord, John, Duke of Berry. However, the claim was disputed by the then Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, who succeeded his father John the Fearless in 1419 after the latter's assassination by the agents of Dauphin Charles. Philip took possession and ruled the county personally, till 1434, after which he gave it to John II, Count of Nevers, his first cousin, who kept it in peaceful possession, until it was reverted to Richard in September 1435 by the former Dauphin, who was now King Charles VII of France. The new king confirmed his gift to the deceased duke by letters patent presented to his widow in 1442. However, this decision was contested by the Attorney General of the Parlement, who argued that the County should have been reunited with the Crown, after the death of Richard. It was taken back from Margaret's son Francis in 1478 and in the month of April of the following year, Charles's son and successor, King Louis XI gave it to John of Foix, Viscount of Narbonne, whose wife Marie of Orleans was a niece of Margaret and sister of the future Louis XII of France.Issue
- Marie of Brittany, Abbess of Fontevrault since 1457 until her death.
- Isabelle of Brittany.
- Catherine of Brittany, Dame de l'Epine-Gaudin; married on 19 August 1438 to William VII of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange, Count of Penthièvre and Seigneur de Cerlier.
- Francis II, Duke of Brittany
- Unnamed son.
- Margaret of Brittany, a nun.
- Madeleine of Brittany, a nun.